Hydrangea Bathing

Last summer, I wrote about The Healing Garden hidden behind the main building of Buffalo’s Botanical Gardens. I was fascinated to learn that hospitals are creating these gardens everywhere, now that medical science has proven nature reduces stress in both hospital patients and staff. Unfortunately, one of our close friends was diagnosed with cancer, so I decided to turn a section of our property into a place where our friend could sit and relax after treatments, and soak up the sights, sounds, and smells of nature.

After doing some research, I learned that true healing gardens combine three important elements: green vegetation, flowers, and water. I also discovered Shinrin-yoku, a Japanese term that means “taking in the forest atmosphere” or “forest bathing.” It was developed in the 1980s and has become a cornerstone of preventive health care and healing in Japanese medicine. The premise is that simply by being in nature, you connect with it through all five senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. I embraced these principles and built the healing garden around them, beginning in early March of this year.

I felt it was important to create the garden against a wooded backdrop of trees and shrubs where birds, butterflies, bees, and other wildlife would feel protected as they visited the garden. Scientific studies have found that many trees give off organic compounds that support our “natural killer” cells, part of our immune system’s way of fighting cancer.

Coneflowers, marigolds, asters, and black-eyed susans are scattered among the garden plantings to add color and to feed the birds. Hummingbird feeders are tucked in a separate corner to make sure our smallest avian guests have nourishment too.

I carved out one small section for an herb garden. It includes not only culinary herbs like basil, thyme, rosemary, chives, oregano and sage, it also incorporates medicinal herbs like bee balm, lemon balm, feverfew, and echinachea. Lavender, mint, and roses all have curative properties, but I wanted them in the garden for their intoxicating scents.

In the photos, you’ll also notice a few “unnatural” things added strictly for the comfort of the human visitor. A hot tub hidden in a back corner. Wind chimes. Solar powered lights along gravel paths (for different sounds and sights in the evenings). A bench with deep cushions.

Could you create a smaller, less complicated healing garden if you had limited space? Absolutely. A shady tree, some ferns, a few flowers, and a bird bath would be enough.

At this point you might ask, does it actually work? I offer two observations. First, my friend with cancer, who visited the garden several times, is in remission (no, I have no hard evidence to prove the connection, but I want to believe it helped). Second, though I am beleaguered more by stress than illness at the moment, I know I have reaped the benefits of full immersion in this natural setting. It calms me, centers me, heightens my senses, jump starts my creativity, and sharpens my intuition. I think it helps me as a writer too.

So I ask, what could be more cathartic, or inspiring, than bathing in the stillness and beauty of a hydrangea bush in full flower? To sit and fully appreciate the magnificence of those dazzling white orbs nestled in a bed of soothing green? I settle near them and close my eyes, and hear the bird song, the wind chimes, the burbling fountain, and the gentle breeze rustling the boughs of the pine trees above me. I connect with the rhythms of the natural world. And I am at peace.

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